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September 30, 2009
From Ratnerville with Love
The reports and analysis are still trickling in of Bruce Ratner's deal with the Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov to bail out the NJ Nets and the flagging Atlantic Yards project.
NY Newsday, Globalization continues after sale of Nets to Russian mogul
Though the headline makes it sound like "globalization continues" despite the sale, Newsday's John Jeansonne casts the deal in the context of borderless economies:
“It’s business as usual in the international economy,” Duke University cultural anthropologist Orin Starn said of the Prokhorov deal. “It’s a borderless world and a world where money talks.
“It’s part of the pattern of globalization of sports ownership, just as corporations have globalized,” Starn said. “It’s also about the old story of sports franchises as a kind of trophy, a plaything of the wealthy. American millionaires and billionaires, from [marketing magnate and Washington Redskins owner] Daniel Snyder to [Microsoft co-founder and NFL, NBA and Major League Soccer team owner] Paul Allen, want their franchises, their sports toys. Russian billionaires are the same.”
Rob Tilliss, who worked with Ratner in the latter’s 2003 purchase of the Nets and now is CEO of the global sports and entertainment advising firm Inner Circle Sports, argued that “the reaction would’ve been similar if it were a wealthy Indian or Malaysian or Chinese buying the Nets. I think any time you have a foreign investor acquiring a major U.S. asset, there’s a lot of interest.”
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Not so many years ago, such a deal would have been a clear sign of the apocalypse, especially since sports so often is tied to patriotism.
NoLandGrab: Globalization aside, this still begs the question, should public tax dollars and eminent domain be used to feather the nest of a foreign businessman, who is listed at #40 on Forbes's world's most wealthy list.
RotoTimes.com, Atlantic Division Report
Current Nets owner Bruce Ratner believes that the sale of 80 percent of the Nets to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is the final piece to building an $800 million arena and moving to Brooklyn. The Nets currently play in the Izod Center, the oldest arena in the league. Prokhorov would be the first foreign owner in the NBA if the sale is approved.
Minyanville.com, The NBA, From Russia With Love
One report on the deal totally fudges an important Atlantic Yards stat:
Prokhorov’s ownership conditions would give him a 45% stake in the team’s new arena in downtown Brooklyn. In addition to the arena, the Atlantic Yards projects would create more than 1,000 housing units, with more than half of them being touted as being “affordable or middle-income.”
NoLandGrab: Ratner added condos to his project after striking the "50/50" deal with ACORN, which bring the percentage of "affordable or middle-income" housing units down to roughly 35%.
Posted by lumi at September 30, 2009 6:31 AM